Things are getting just a little bit exciting over at the newly named Etihad Stadium. Unsurprisingly Manchester City continued with their heavy investment completely overlooking the fair-transfer rules about to be set into place thanks to a cool £400 million made by renaming their stadium. This allowed freedom for plenty of movement including the record-breaking signing of Sergio ‘Kun’ Aguero for a staggering total package sum of £38 million. With plenty of stars comprising the depth Manchester City need to mount a serious title offensive; can the team gel together or will Mancini have to once again rely on individual talents and a heavily defensive mentality to see them over the finish line?
The main controversy coming out of Manchester is of course the Carlos Tevez saga. The talismanic forward’s prolific form had a critical part to play in Manchester City’s success last season, scoring 20 goals in 28 league games for the Light Blues. With his open desire to leave out for everyone to see, it seems only a matter of time before the Argentinean moves on. However, Tevez has always given 100% on the football pitch for any club he has played for, so City fans seeing Tevez in a blue shirt until January isn’t the biggest concern. The issue I believe is Mancini would ideally like to pick a consistent attacking partnership and let the players gel together, something which City still need to do. Playing Tevez while knowing he will inevitably leave is a frustrating move for the manager, but you simply cannot bench such talent if you have it at your disposal.
| Will Aguero have the same impact as Suarez at Liverpool? |
The Light Blues have certainly been busy this transfer window; the spiritual successor to Carlos Tevez has already arrived – Sergio Aguero is set to light the Premier League on fire and City fans hope he can replicate the same sensational style of play that we have seen from players like Luis Suarez. Alongside Aguero French left back Gael Clichy has made the move up north to give Kolarov a little competition, creating fantastic cover for a position that’s usually difficult to fill effectively. Finally, 20-year old Stefan Savic from Partizan Belgrade has moved to City in an attempt to grow into a defensive powerhouse under the mentoring of City’s star-studded defense. With Samir Nasri strongly rumored to follow in Clichy’s footsteps, Danielle De Rossi and Wesley Sneijder all being linked to City, it’s difficult to make any guesses as to who will be wearing a light blue shirt come the end of the transfer window.
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| Adebayor is eager to go back to Madrid after a positive loan spell. |
While players are flocking to join City’s ranks, some players are finding it incredibly difficult to leave. Emmanuel Adebayor in particular is still waiting patiently as he hopes Real Madrid will take him back after a successful loan spell. Roque Santa Cruz is also another striker out of favour with Mancini, waiting to find a club that will offer him first team football. English winger Sean Wright-Phillips is also keen to move on as it is apparent his performance during pre-season was still not enough to move him up the pecking order in Mancini’s plans. Hot-tempered Craig Bellamy is also another player who feels he deserves first-team football and has to go looking elsewhere. Finally, English full back Wayne Bridge will be looking for a club to secure his services after a decent showing on loan with West Ham last season. It looks like City are so strong financially that moving dead wood isn’t a massive priority, but these players will inevitably move on to free some lockers in the dressing room.
What I hope to see –
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| Johnson brings a spark to a defensively minded City. |
Fluid attacking football; An old sport coach told me that “offence wins games, but defense wins championships” – while I agree, it seems ridiculous that having such an incredible attacking roster of players, Manchester City still seem to put everyone behind the ball and rely on individual excellence to prevail. Their home game against Manchester United in the Premier League last season was described by some as an embarrassment, the home team should push the pace of the game, instead they sat and allowed United the opportunity to control and dominate. You do not invest heavily in such talent to allow your competition such possession and opportunity to dictate the flow of the game. City have a terrific defense lead by one of the Premier League’s top centre backs Vincent Kompany – it’s now time for Mancini to stabilize an attacking line, let them blend and hopefully find a coherent and attractive style of football that fans of the game can watch and enjoy.
Keep Silva in the middle; The Spaniard’s best position is clearly through the centre with his incredible vision and terrific passing ability. Playing him just behind a striker will lead to a massive assist count and handful of goals from Manchester City’s key playmaker.
Give Mario Balotelli one more chance; Above all else the Italian is an incredibly entertaining character, but he has already made it clear that he won’t honour the 5-year contract he signed, so let’s wait it out till January and if he continues to disobey team etiquette, sell him back to Italy – providing Edin Dzeko reaches some sort of form in the Premier League.
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| Tevez will leave but let's hope he bows out in style. |
Get the best 6 months out of Carlos Tevez; It’s no secret that Tevez will leave, so make it absolutely clear to him that as soon as an acceptable offer comes in, you can take those already packed bags and buy a first class ticket out of Manchester. For the mean time however, end your stay on a high – continue with your strong work ethic and score 6 – 8 goals for City in the league before the January transfer window opens and everybody will be a winner.
Give Adam Johnson regular first team football; Johnson’s flair on the right wing is a proven danger and there’s no doubt he could become an even better player than he is today. Tough competition for the position has made Johnson’s appearances erratic and this is incredibly unfortunate – if Manchester City want beautiful attacking football then they have to unleash players like Johnson and let them do what they do best.
Proposed Line-up –
GK – Hart
DR – Richards
DL – Kolarov
DC – Kompany
DC – K. Toure
CM – De Jong
CM – Yaya Toure
CAM – Silva
RF – Johnson
LF – Aguero
ST – Tevez
Another line up that is so difficult to predict due to the sheer depth that Manchester City possess. Last season they opted to put Yaya Toure in a central attacking midfield role behind the striker and while a man of his strength and skill is certainly a danger there, it pushed Silva out wide and forced Gareth Barry to play who in my opinion slows the team’s pace right down. Push Yaya back into central midfield to boss the play and allow Silva to roam freely in an advanced position. If the team needs to be more defensive, hard-working players like Milner can be used on the wings to help with defensive duties but the line-up I propose on paper has a solid defense with hard-working midfielders to bolster it and a devastatingly potent attacking four.
Predicted place in table – I believe that things can go one of three ways for Manchester City and they have a 66.6% chance of success. City can rely on individual prowess and talents, which it has in abundance to succeed, perhaps coming in second. They could also gel together, play fluid football and as a result, become serious contenders for the Premier League title and even finish first. Or the further purchases could prevent the team from gelling and the team’s individual superstars fail to shine. If the latter does occur I actually will go back on my words because according to the state of other teams, in the absolute worse case scenario I still believe Manchester City will easily capture a Champions League spot in 3rd place at a minimum. The question we must ask is whether all this spending ensures that anything other than continued progress (a top 2 finish) is considered a failure by Mancini.
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